Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/569

 FRENCH RENAISSANCE. 511 columns unattached to the drum. The interior of the church has an order of Corinthian columns with an attic over, and has been decorated recently with frescoes by foremost French artists. The vaulting is ingenious, and elegance has been obtained by a tenuity of support, which at one time threatened the stability of the edifice. The exterior (No. 224) has a Corinthian colonnade or portico at the west end, the cornice to which is carried round the remainder of the fa9ades, which have a blank wall treat- ment, the light being obtained for the nave by a clerestory over the aisles. The Madeleine, Paris (a.d. 1804) was erected by the architect 'ignon. In plan it is an octastyle peripteral temple, 350 feet by 147 feet, showing a direct imitation of ancient Roman architecture, and being a further step towards absolute copyism. The external order has a defect, which often occurs in French buildings, viz., that the columns are built of small courses of stone, the joints of which confuse the lines of the fluting, and the architraves are formed into flat arches with wide joints. The interior is fine and original, the cella, as it would be called in a Classic structure, being divided into three bays, covered by flat domes, through the eyes of which is obtained all the light for the church. At the east end is an apse covered with a half-dome. 4. COMPARATIVE. The essential diff"erences between Italian and French Renais- sance will now be treated in a comparative manner, but it must be borne in mind that the subject is treated generally, and that the comparisons state what usually is the fact, although in many cases features are found which do not exactly correspond with the type. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. FRENCH RENAISSANCE. A. Plans. — The great feature of A. Plans. — The castles of the Italian houses is the cortile, or central open courtyard, which has, in all important examples, a colonnade or arcade round it. It is usual for the main wall, on the first floor, to stand on the piers or columns of this arcade, giving ampler space for the important rooms, which are in Italj', on the first or principal floor, called the " piano nobile " (Nos. igi, 196, 198, 208 and 217). previous period influenced both plan and design of the early chateaux, some of which were on the site of, or additions to, such castles. Chambord may be counted as an attempt at an ideal plan of a mansion, half castle and half palace (Nos. 220 and 221). The typical house plan in the towns has a main block, with two lower wings in- closing a courtyard cut off from the street bv a screen wall.